Rowland Hanson, the former Microsoft marketing guru who came up with the name Windows, has launched a new consulting practice called The Branding Foundry that is designed to help inventors bring new consumer products and services to market. …

HeadSprout, which develops online reading programs for kids, has raised $8 million in funding from Kaplan, Roser Ventures, Sofinnova Ventures and others. The eight-year-old Seattle startup will use the funds to expand programs beyone the more than 1,000 schools currently using the product. …

Forbes magazine has published its annual “Midas List” of the top 100 tech dealmakers, with early Google investors Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreas von Bechtolsheim formerly of Sun Microsystems at the top of the charts. …

Voyager Capital, which is in the midst of closing a new venture fund, has completed an investment in a San Diego startup called SEMDirector that helps companies better manage online advertising campaigns. …

Following up on yesterday’s story on the rise of venture capital in the state last year, I provide more evidence of the uptick in another story with new figures from the MoneyTree report. Meanwhile, investments in Oregon dropped 39 percent last year as just 18 companies raised $111 million, according to The Oregonian. (By comparison, Washington startups attracted just over $1 billion last year). …

Seattle’s Entellium faces tough competition from industry powerhouse Salesforce.com — a publicly-traded San Francisco company that boasts more than $700 million in annual revenue and more than 27,000 customers. …